Kghnle



April 14, 1964 P. KUHNLE CONVEYOR APPARATUS IN PACKAGING MACHINES 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 16, 1961 April 14, 1964 P. KUHNLE 3,128,881

CONVEYOR APPARATUS IN PACKAGING MACHINES Filed Jan. 16, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig. 5

April 14, 1964 P. KUHNLE 3,128,881

4 CONVEYOR APPARATUS IN PACKAGING MACHINES Filed Jan. 16, 1961 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Fig. 6

United States Patent 3,128,881 CGNVEYOR APPARATUS IN PACKAGING MACHINES Paul Kiihnle, W innenden, Wurttemberg, Germany, assignor to Firnia Fr. Hesser Maschinenfabrik-Aktiengesellschatt, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, Germany, a corporation of Germany Filed Ian. 16, I961, Ser. No. 82,982 Claims priority, application Germany Jan. 16, 1960 3 Claims. (Cl. 209-121) The present invention is concerned with the package feed means, for example conveyor wheels or conveyor chains, of packaging machines, these means being equipped with a continuous series of holders to receive the packages and being adapted to rotate or move forward stepwise.

A primary object of the invention is so to construct such conveyor devices as to enable the packages carried along in the holders to be weighed successively during the pauses in the travel of the feed means, without any faulty weighing due to frictional effects.

For this purpose and in accordance with an important feature of the invention, all the side wall parts of the feed holder, which is open-ended, in the conveyor device are displaceably mounted for temporary release of the packages and are arranged to be operated at a weighing station in the machine in such a way, by means of levers and cams or the like, that they are substantially simultaneously moved away from the package carried along by the particular holder. When the conveyor device is in the form of a conveyor wheel, each holder thereof advantageously has two oppositely disposed side walls with a rear wall transverse thereto, and the side walls of the holder are pivotable and the rear wall is mounted on the conveyor wheel for shifting transversely to the direction of travel of the conveyor, the side walls and the rear wall of each holder preferably being movably coupled together so that the side walls are adapted to be pivoted away from the conveyed package in response to rearward travel of the rear wall.

Further features of this invention are concerned with a particularly advantageous means for bringing about the movements of the side walls and the rear wall, these means being operated from the main drive of the machine.

Where the conveyor device is to be a conveyor chain, in accordance with a further feature of the present invention, each holder of this conveyor chain comprises two angled elements which are mounted for pivoting pairwise relatively to one another, one limb of each element representing the half of the rear wall disposed in the direction of conveyance, and the other limb a side wall of the holder transverse to the direction of conveyance, this pair of elements being supported opposite one another in such fashion as to build up the two side walls and the rear wall of each holder. Each of these angled elements may be secured to an arm which is rotatably carried by a joint pin of the chain members.

To allow for common pivotal movement of these angled elements, the aforesaid arms are themselves coupled, through the agency of links and a common cross piece, with bellcrank levers which are connected to a further bellcrank which is pivotally mounted on the chain and which is adapted to be swung out from the rest or ice locking position, for the purpose of releasing the angled elements, by engagement with an operating lever at the weighing station of the machine.

Further features of the invention in relation to this embodiment relate to the construction of a means for locking the two angled elements in the conveying position whereby the releasing movement can only take place at a station in the machine equipped for this purpose.

Two embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the accompanying diagrammatic drawings and are described below, it being understood that the invention is not limited to the details of construction particularly illustrated and described. In these drawings:

FIGURE 1 shows a plan view partly in section and partly broken away of the conveyor wheel of a package filling and closing machine equipped in accordance with this invention.

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view on an enlarged scale of a feed holder of the conveyor wheel of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a partial cross section through a portion of the machine, seen in FIGURE 1, in the vicinity of the weighing station thereof.

FIGURE 4 is a cross section through a detail of the machine of FIGURE 1, in the vicinity of an ejection station thereof.

FIGURE 5 is a diagram illustrating the electrical connections of the control weigher provided at the weighing station of this machine.

FIGURE 6 is a partial plan view of an embodiment utilizing a chain for conveying the packages in a filling and closing machine.

FIGURE 7 is a plan view on an enlarged scale of a package holder and means for attaching it to the conveyor chain of FIGURE 6, and

FIGURE 8 is a rear view of the holder of FIGURE 7.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIGURES 1 to 5 of the accompanying drawings, use is made in a filling and closing machine of an intermittently rotated conveyor wheel which feeds a package 2 first to a filling device 30 of any suitable type, for example a dispensing device, arranged at the Station I of the machine and indicated in FIGURE 5, and then by a further step to the load support 7 of a control weigher 7a of a conventional commercial, electrical type provided at Station II of the machine. This control weigher checks the weights of the filled packages 2 and, by the means to be described in more detail below, rejects underweight packages at Station III in the machine. The commodity in the packages 2 is compacted, and these packages then closed, by known means at further stations in the machine.

The wheel I has a series of package holders which enclose each package 2 on three sides by means of two side walls 3 and a rear wall 4. In its travel the package 2 is guided at the front by a fixed guide rail 5 which is offset outwards in the vicinity of the control weigher and is interrupted at Station 111. With the exception of the weighing phase, the packages slide during their travel, or stand during the pauses in this travel, on an annular fixed support rail 6, which is interrupted at Station II in view of the load support 7 of the control weigher 7a arranged there.

To enable the packages to be relinquished to this load support the side walls 3 of each holder of the conveyor wheel 1 are pivotally mounted by means of arms 8, whilst the rear wall 4 of each holder is fastened to a bar 9 which is arranged in bearings 10 on the conveyor wheel 1 for radial displacement. The (release of a package 2 is brought about by moving the corresponding bar 9 towards the centre of the conveyor wheel 1 so that the rear wall 4 moves away from the package. To arrange tor the side walls 3 to be swung away from the package 2 simultaneously with this movement, the bar 9 is furnished at its leading or outer end pant with wedge surfaces 28 cooperating with rollers 11 mounted on the arms 8 of the side walls 3.

- The packages 2 are released in turn at the weighing location at Station II, and the conveyor wheel 1 locked, each time this wheel stops. In the present instance the conveyor wheel 1 is driven intermittently by a Maltese gearing 13, 14 and the locking means comprise a lever 15 which is operable by a cam plate 16 which turns with the driver 13 of this gearing. Shortly after the termination of a conveyor step, the lever 15 moves a roller .17 into a slot in the Maltese cross 14 and it remains in this position until a new conveyor step is initiated. During this period the package is weighed, so that the release movement is advantageously correlated with the locking of the conveyor wheel 1.

To this end the lever 15 has an angled arm 18 which is connected to a rocker by means of a link 19-. The rocker 20 is fastened to a vertical shaft 21 having a cam 22 secured to its upper end. During this locking of the conveyor wheel 1 the cam 22 is thus rotated and thereby contacts a roller 23 which is secured to the bar 9, so imparting the required radial movement to the bar at the appropriate time. 7

The rollers 23 on the bars 9 are guided in a groove 24 in a fixed cam plate 25 determining the position at appropriate times of the rear walls 4 of the holders. In the vicinity of Station 11 this groove 24 has an enlargement 26 into which the rollers 23 are forced during the radial movement of bars 9. In addition the cam 25 has a recess 27 in the vicinity of Station II, and the cams '22 are able to pass into this recess.

Packages of faulty weight are discarded at Station III by a movement of the bars 9 away from the center of the conveyor wheel '1. For this purpose cam plate 25 has a radial recess in the vicinity of Station III, and a block 29, which is radially movable and is provided with a groove for operating the rollers 23 of the bars 9, is inserted into this recess.

This block 29 is connected to an ejecting device of known suitable form, this device being adapted to move the block 29 outwardly under the control of the weigher 7a in response to the detection of faulty-weight packages so as to reject these packages, and then to move it back, the roller 23 of the bar 9 concerned being engaged in the aforesaid groove in the block 29.

The control weigher 7a is electrically connected to a suitable control device of known form which has been indicated at 3 3 in FIGURE 5 and which, in response to the weight measurements, regulates the package filling device 30 of the machine by means of an electric motor 30a, and also controls the solenoid 32 of the ejecting de vice which, in turn, moves the block 29 outwards through the agency of pivoted links 31.

FIGURES 6 to 8 illustrate a further embodiment of the invention as applied to a case where the device for conveying the packages 2 is in the form of a conveyor chain 40. This chain has a series of two-part holders, the parts 41, 42 of each of which are of right angled form, and are secured to arms 43, 44 pivotally mounted on pins 45, 46 on the chain member-s. The two arms 43, 44 are mounted in cross-over fashion relatively to the corresponding holder parts 41, 42, thereby ensuring positive rocking apart of the holder parts away from the package 2 carried thereby.

The movement of arms 43, 44 and the rocking of the 4 conveyor parts 41, 42 are initiated through the agency of a bellorank 47 which has a roller 48 on one arm thereof and is held in the rest position against an abutment screw 50 by the other arm through the agency of a spring hooked on the end of pin 45. The bellcrank 47 is fastened to a spindle 51 which is mounted in a lug 53 of a 7 bar 52 .secured to the pins 45, 46 and parallel to the associated member of the chain. Secured to the lower end of the spindle 51 is a cross piece 54 which is articulated by means of links 55, 56, to angled levers 57, 58 on the arms 43, 44. By virtue of this articulated connection, the two holder parts 41, 42 can be swung away simultaneously trom the packages 2 in response to pivoting of the bell crank 47 in the direction of arrow a.

To prevent the parts 41, 42 of the holder from rocking away from the conveyed packages under the effect of inertial forces during their travel, in this normal position the links 55, 56 and the cross piece54 are set so that they have just passed beyond the straight condition, with the result that forces developing can only produce, through arms 43 44, levers 57, 58, the links 55, 56, the cross piece 54 and the spindle 51, a rotation of the bellcrank 47 oppositely to the direction of arrow a, so that it will ab ut against the screw 50. At the weighing Station II, this straight condition is overcome as a result of pivoting of the bel-lcrank 47 in the direction of arrow a.

To place the packages freely on the load support 7 a lever 60 is arranged on a shaft 61 at the weighing Station II. Each time a conveyor-holder 41, 42 runs into the weighing Station 11 the roller 48 of the bellcrank 47 abuts against this lever 60. During the succeeding pause in the travel of the conveyor, the lever 60 secured to the shaft 61 is rocked, causing the corresponding conveyor holder to. be opened. This shaft 61 corresponds to the shaft 2 1 of the embodiment illustrated in FIGURES l to 4 and is operated in the same way as this.

To enable underweight packages to be ejected, the

' holder parts 41, 42 have cut-outs 62, 63 through which can pass a plunger 64 operated by solenoid 32.

The construction and operation of the holders described above is not confined to use with conveyor chains, but may also be applied to the case of conveyor wheels.

What I claim is:

1. In a packaging machine, the combination comprising fixed support means, a single horizontal conveyor for moving a plurality of packages relative to said fixed support means, a weighing station mounted on said fixed support means, an underweight rejection station mounted on said fixed support means and disposed in spaced relation to said weighing station to define a space therebetween, a plurality of package holders attached to said conveyor for movement therewith and being spaced from each other .a distance corresponding to the space between said weighing and rejection stations, each package holder including a plurality of pivoted walls and operating means therefor, said pivoted walls being movable in a horizontal plane between a package holding position and a package releasing position, drive means for intermittently driving said conveyor whereby said package holders pause in their travel at said weighing and rejection stations, said movable walls normally being disposed in their package holding position during movement with said conveyor, means mounted on said fixed support means at said weighing station for actuating said operating means causing said pivoted walls to move to their package releasing position whereby a package is released from its holder during its pause at said weighing station, ejecting means carried by said fixed support means at said rejection station, and underweight control means operatively connected to said rejecting means whereby an underweight package weighed during its pause at said weighing station is subsequently ejected from said conveyor during its pause at said rejection station.

2. The combination as recited in claim 1 wherein said conveyor comprises a conveyor wheel and said fixed support means comprises a track with a guide groove therein, said operating means includes a bar member having side ramps and a guide roller disposed in said guide groove for causing endwise movement of said bar member in one direction by said actuating means, follower means on said pivoted walls engaging said side ramps for causing pivotal movement of said pivoted walls, and said ejection means comprises a radially movable block member operatively connected to said guide roller for moving said bar member endwise in an opposite direction.

3. The combination as recited in claim 1 wherein said conveyor comprises a conveyor chain and said operating means comprises an arm for each wall pivotally mounted on said conveyor chain, a primary bellcrank lever connected to each arm, a secondary bellcrank lever pivotally mounted on said conveyor chain, a cross link means articulated to said primary bellcrank levers and connected to said secondary bellcrank lever, spring means biasing said secondary bellcrank lever into an over center position, and means on said secondary bellcrank lever for engagement by said actuating means at said weighing station.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

1. IN A PACKAGING MACHINE, THE COMBINATION COMPRISING FIXED SUPPORT MEANS, A SINGLE HORIZONTAL CONVEYOR FOR MOVING A PLURALITY OF PACKAGES RELATIVE TO SAID FIXED SUPPORT MEANS, A WEIGHTING STATION MOUNTED ON SAID FIXED SUPPORT MEANS, AN UNDERWEIGHT REJECTION STATION MOUNTED ON SAID FIXED SUPPORT MEANS AND DISPOSED IN SPACED RELATION TO SAID WEIGHTING STATION TO DEFINE A SPACE THEREBETWEEN, A PLURALITY OF PACKAGE HOLDERS ATTACHED TO SAID CONVEYOR FOR MOVEMENT THEREWITH AND BEING SPACED FROM EACH OTHER A DISTANCE CORRESPONDING TO THE SPACE BETWEEN SAID WEIGHING AND REJECTION STATIONS, EACH PACKAGE HOLDER INCLUDING A PLURALITY OF PIVOTED WALLS AND OPERATING MEANS THEREFOR, SAID PIVOTED WALLS BEING MOVABLE IN A HORIZONTAL PLANE BETWEEN A PACKAGE HOLDING POSITION AND A PACKAGE RELEASING POSITION, DRIVE MEANS FOR INTERMITTENTLY DRIVING SAID CONVEYOR WHEREBY SAID PACKAGE HOLDERS PAUSE IN THEIR TRAVEL AT SAID WEIGHING AND REJECTION STATIONS, SAID MOVABLE WALLS NORMALLY BEING DISPOSED IN THEIR PACKAGE HOLDING POSITION DURING MOVEMENT WITH SAID CONVEYOR, MEANS MOUNTED ON SAID FIXED SUPPORT MEANS AT SAID WEIGHING STATION FOR ACTUATING SAID OPERATING MEANS CAUSING SAID PIVOTED WALLS TO MOVE TO THEIR PACKAGE RELEASING POSITION WHEREBY A PACKAGE IS RELEASED FROM ITS HOLDER DURING ITS PAUSE AT SAID WEIGHING STATION, EJECTING MEANS CARRIED BY SAID FIXED SUPPORT MEANS AT SAID REJECTION STATION, AND UNDERWEIGHT CONTROL MEANS OPERATIVELY CONNECTED TO SAID DURING ITS PAUSE AT SAID WEIGHING STATION IS SUBSEQUENTLY EJECTED FROM SAID CONVEYOR DURING ITS PAUSE AT SAID REJECTION STATION. 